Templer, FM Sir Gerald Walter Robert (1898-1979). Commissioned into the infantry, Templer served in WW I, and was awarded the DSO as a company commander in Palestine in 1916. A staff officer with the ill-fated British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in 1940, he commanded a division at Anzio. He is, however, best known for his service as high commissioner and C-in-C in 1952-4 during the height of the Malayan emergency. He took major political initiatives and vigorously pursued counter-insurgency warfare by pulling the administration, police, and army firmly together. As CIGS (1955-8), he proved anachronistic in opposing the reduction of the army's size, the increasing integration of the three services, and the consolidation of the Minister of Defence's role and powers. He supported intervention in Suez, but resented the politicization of the operation. He objected to an over-reliance on nuclear strategy and pressed unsuccessfully for retaining a capacity to wage conventional war outside the NATO area. His Malayan techniques were later perverted by the South Vietnamese in their strategic hamlets programme.
Bibliography
- Cloake, John, Templer: Tiger of Malaya (London, 1985)
— Bruce W. Collins
